Loud response: Tar Heels storm back to beat Duke, soak in celebration

Friday

Feb 21, 2014 at 12:01 AMFeb 21, 2014 at 1:17 AM

Adam Smith / Times-News

CHAPEL HILL — The ear-splitting satisfaction and court-storming scene setting in as he took a seat outside of the North Carolina locker room, Marcus Paige talked of Thursday night’s final moments, when the Tar Heels’ 74-66 toppling of fifth-ranked Duke became secured.

“The way we fought, to stay composed, it was really a great feeling,” the sophomore point guard said. “I think that’s probably one of the bigger wins I’ve …”

He stopped himself and laughed at the words coming out of his mouth.

“All right, all right,” he said, smiling and clarifying. “It was the biggest win I’ve had since I’ve been here.”

Eight nights after the postponement of this first meeting of the Atlantic Coast Conference basketball season between these archrivals, North Carolina rallied out of an 11-point, second-half deficit in the makeup date, extended its winning streak to eight games and celebrated as a sea of baby blue engulfed the Smith Center court.

Leslie McDonald’s season-high 21 points kept the Tar Heels (19-7 overall, 9-4 ACC) afloat throughout. And it was his curling jumper with 3:54 remaining that vaulted North Carolina ahead to stay at 62-60, a tie-breaking swish that elicited one of the many deafening roars from the rocking crowd.

“This is by far the loudest I’ve ever heard our fans,” said McDonald, a fifth-year senior, who spent the start of the season stuck in NCAA purgatory.

Paige, North Carolina’s leading scorer, responded from a scoreless struggle in the first half and delivered 13 points in the second half, with nine coming in the last 5˝ minutes.

He bounced off Duke forward Rodney Hood and drilled a pull-up jumper to make the Tar Heels’ lead 64-60. Then while surveying things out high, he called for a clear out and proceeded to take Hood off the dribble for a driving, ducking-through-traffic bucket that made it 66-62 Tar Heels with 1:29 left.

“I got aggressive and decided I was going to be a participant in the second half,” Paige said. “I was bad in the first half. I really didn’t want to have that impact on the team. I wanted to make a positive impact.”

Six consecutive free throws — four from guard Nate Britt and two from Paige — were coupled with McDonald’s press-breaking layup in the last 46.2 seconds, allowing North Carolina, which trailed 51-40 with 15 minutes left, to seal the victory.

Paige said the Tar Heels, once feeling the burden of their 1-4 record in the ACC, showed a gritty refusal to be denied Thursday night with their effort and intensity.

Meanwhile, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski bemoaned what he depicted to be a second-half disappearance from his team. He said the Blue Devils “played young” and “looked tired” and “didn’t have life” in what became a post-game analysis marked by baffled disappointment.

“I’m not afraid to lose and respect people who beat us,” Krzyzewski said. “But I would’ve liked to have done more in the second half. So I’m walking out of here frustrated, not with the loss but with the fact that we didn’t ante up the way we should’ve.”

J.P. Tokoto dribbled out the final seconds near midcourt, with McDonald approaching and soaking in the finishing touches of the moment — as the risers and the aisles began emptying en masse and the court-rushing crowd poured forward.

What was that like when the fans swarmed the floor?

“It was ballistic,” said Tar Heels forward James Michael McAdoo, who chipped in 10 points and 10 rebounds. “It was kind of surreal, just being out there with the crowd going so ballistic.”

Duke’s well-spaced, half-court sets spread North Carolina’s defense and created driving lanes time and again for its best attackers — Parker, Hood, Cook and Rasheed Sulaimon.

Williams’ decision to mix in zone defenses during the second half, seemingly out of necessity to cut off Duke’s drivers, became a game-changer for the Tar Heels.

“When Coach did it, I was honestly a little surprised,” McAdoo said. “But it helped.”

With the stretchy Tokoto roaming at the top of North Carolina’s zones, the Blue Devils drifted into a power outage of more than 8˝ minutes without a field goal. Duke missed 13 shots in a row from the field and scored only two points on free throws during that second-half stretch, as the Tar Heels slowly mounted their comeback.

“It was a different thing. We didn’t expect them to go zone,” Cook said. “They kept switching them. We’d come down and didn’t know what zone they’d be in. It kept us on our toes.”

Duke led 37-30 at halftime. Hood had scored 11 points by that juncture, despite picking up his second foul at the 12-minute mark and heading to the bench. He was one of five Duke players to finish with four fouls.

Parker had 10 first-half points. The pair of star forwards for the Blue Devils went a combined 10-for-15 from the field in the first half.

McDonald’s surprising 11 points in the game’s opening 12˝ minutes came to the rescue for North Carolina, especially with Paige reduced to a scoreless non-factor in the first half.

Cook and Sulaimon drew the first-half defensive assignments on Paige and mostly stayed glued to the lefty point guard.

“Leslie was huge,” Paige said. “This is something people aren’t going to forget. He really made an impact on this game. He carried us offensively for stretches, knocked down huge shots.”

About five minutes before player introductions, Duke emerged on the court for its final warm-ups and this building rained down a deep-throated chorus of boos on the visiting Blue Devils.

The noise turned even louder moments later when the Tar Heels were shown on the video boards, clapping and huddling and then running out of their tunnel.

Practically nobody sat down during the game’s early minutes, as North Carolina jumped ahead 6-0, starting with McDonald’s 3 on the first possession and McAdoo’s drive past Parker on the next.

Hood erupted for all 11 of his first-half points in a rapid span of three minutes — hammering a lob for a dunk, faking Tokoto off his feet for a mid-range jumper, draining a 3 and then attacking on back-to-back drives.

Free throws were a problem for the Tar Heels in the first half. When McAdoo missed a pair about four minutes prior to halftime, the Tar Heels were just 1-for-8 from the foul line.

North Carolina recovered from that funk and went 19-for-23 on free throws the rest of the way.

â–Ş TIP-INS Â…: North Carolina grabbed 13 more rebounds than Duke. Other than Parker (11 rebounds) and reserve Marshall Plumlee (six rebounds), no Blue Devils player had more than three boards. Hood finished with zero rebounds. Â… Paige mentioned DukeÂ’s Cameron Indoor Stadium and Michigan StateÂ’s Breslin Center in ranking the roaring volume of the Smith Center on Thursday night. Â“But that crowd was the most crazy,Â” Paige said. Â“I might be a little biased, but when we took the lead, it was unbelievable, like an out of body experience.Â” Â… Both teams are facing quick turnarounds with their next games. North Carolina plays host to Wake Forest on Saturday afternoon while No. 1 Syracuse visits Duke on Saturday night.